Coulter and Maher Heat up the Stage

I went to Radio City Music Hall last night for the first round of Ann Coulter and Bill Maher’s Speaker Series debate. On stage, the pair did little to dissuade long-standing rumors that they are more than frenemies. They partied back in the late 90’s together and watching them spar live makes it easy to wonder. (Folks also call Coulter a tranny, so we can’t listen to everything we hear.)

Coulter flirtatiously twirled her blond locks and laughed excitedly at everything Maher said. Maher kept grabbing her arm as he defended his practically libertarian stance. Sexual tension kept the debate interesting to watch, especially if body language really means anything. Before the debate, Maher even defended Coulter’s hard-line and suggested she’s just trying to get a rise out of us.

She didn’t disappoint. Coulter maintained that liberals are victims and Obama is no Lincoln. She said, "Obama was favored by 80 percent of Germans, but we all know Germans are infallible at picking leaders." Like most Republicans, she "doesn’t see a second term coming."

Maher defended Obama, called Republicans greedy bimbos and said, "Today’s economic problems started 30 years ago with Reagan spending a fuck-ton of money… and Clinton ignoring the problems years later." While he didn’t blame Bush entirely, he said, "With two wars on a credit card… he spent money like a pimp with a week to live." Instead, Maher suggested we should, "Do what Israelis do, hunt them down in cold blood and kill them in their sleep." (Another good one.) He also warned Osama, "A Jew named Bernie Madoff beat you to the punch."

They debated stem cell research, Obama’s apointees, Wall Street’s political leanings, evolution, Sarah Palin and of course, the political media. While Coulter defended "all of Christianity’s practitioners," Palin included, Maher hates the "nutty religious right" she represents.

Backstage, after the show, Coulter was on her best behavior. She nervously whispered to me that her "liberal friends are all watching." Maher wasn’t phased, though, he told me backstage that for him, "New York City is an easy crowd."

While neither would admit to ever sleeping with a member of the other party, one can’t help but wonder at the idea of these political idealogues sharing some drunken sucky-face, if not a flat-out one night fuckfest. Just keep an eye out on how Maher walks the stage if you make it out to one of the next two debates in Boston and Chicago.

What do you think?